


Welcome To SpiralTown

by Xenamorph



Category: Wizard101 (Video Game)
Genre: Alcohol, Drinking, Multi, References to Drugs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-09
Updated: 2020-08-09
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:41:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25807555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xenamorph/pseuds/Xenamorph
Summary: In which the author just barely qualifies for writing fanfic
Relationships: Neela Kumar/Jordan Crisp, Solar/Muse
Comments: 5
Kudos: 4





	Welcome To SpiralTown

Jordan certainly had experienced worse cages to be trapped in: her mother’s house, Ravenwood to an extent, and now here. But at least here there was style, at least Jordan could see herself getting lost in this whirlwind.

And why not? Why not get lost in the whirlwind and let herself get swept away by the tide? Take up one of those long cigarettes in fancy holders and breathe out blue smoke and listen to the insane stories that when she thinks about it fall apart that the Storyteller keeps talking about.

The Storyteller reminds her of someone, and it’s getting hard for Jordan to remember just exactly who. Jordan’s been finding it harder and harder to remember certain things and she didn’t know if it worried or relieved her.

The old clock tower chimes the hour and Jordan rubbed at her face as she pushed herself out of her unfairly plush bed. It was comfortable, so very comfortable after months and months of sleeping in tents and on the ground it was absolute heaven. Scrubbing at her face, Jordan made her way towards the en suite bathroom.

She passed by an open window, and heard the sounds of all night revelers making their way down the streets in an eternal party. And Jordan, in a moment that she knows objectively is one of weakness, wished that she had been partying with them instead of waiting in her assigned apartment. (It would be easier for Neela to find her, she had reasoned as she rejected yet another offer to party. _If she was coming_ , a rather mean, if usually right, voice reasoned).

Jordan slammed the window shut as she stalked into the bathroom, cutting off the sounds of the bar crawls going on. Slamming that door behind her as well, she settled herself in front of the mirror. Hands gripping the sides of the porcelain sink, she glared at her reflection. Oh she hadn’t changed much, it had only been a week since seeing Neela and though her hair seems outright rebellious at times, it wasn’t magical enough to have grown that much. Her skin was still deep brown, her eyes were still a similar color.

Her hair had changed though. The frost had melted off and left her with black tight corkscrews left untouched. She thinks about the first time Neela saw her true hair color, and then she heard a knock at the door.

“Jooooordz~” A husky voice crooned and Jordan instinctively cringed at the nickname. She loved the nickname, but not from that voice. “We’re going to the Bacchae, do you wanna come?” The door was opened and there stood Venus.

“I...dunno, Ve”- Jordan scratched at her scalp, and then had to smooth her hair back down into some sort of order, -”You know I’m not really the party type.”

Venus pouted and she moved inside, not even waiting for Jordan’s permission as she draped herself over the chaise taking residence in the middle of the living room, “You could be! God, Jordz, you could be such a party animal if you just let yourself! Come on, just one night, that’s all I ask!” She held out a vine covered hand, the thorny plants wrapping around and in between Venus’s fingers as she waited for a deal to be struck.

Jordan leveled a slight glare, eyes narrowed only slightly as she took Venus’s hand, “One night, that’s it.”

Unperturbed by the glare, Venus just cackled and nodded her head, giving her hand a squeeze, "I promise you won't regret it, babe-"

"-Don't call me babe," The response was immediate and defensive and for a second Jordan was confused about why she was so resistant to being called babe. Why was she so dead set on- Neela. Right, she forgot her girlfriend she forgot her spitfire. Jordan chewed on her lower lip, letting herself focus on her memories (so fuzzy and indistinct they felt like dreams. Were they dreams? Was this the real world and her real life and Neela and the tall strange stranger that accompanied them in her memories just a fleeting dream?). Her breathing quickened up, teeth digging into her bottom lip as she let Venus drag her further into the city.

Spiraltown was beautiful and it was distracting to a point, but a quick reminder of how Neela's hand felt in hers was enough to remind her of reality. Of _her_ reality and _her_ spitfire who is probably coming to save her! Unless Jordan's been overestimating her importance in Neela's life and all this time she had just been a convenient tank for the pyromancer. That couldn't be it right? Neela said she loved her! 

Then again Neela also said 'i love you!' to an adorable dog on the side of the road, and a frog, and anyone who helped them. Maybe Jordan had constructed their relationship out of missed cues and misinterpreted casual affection. Jordan knew that her mother had not been really all that affectionate, but it couldn't have been to the point that she could imagine a romantic relationship, right? No, Neela was probably coming. Unless she thought that Jordan was dead, or that she had just struck out on her own, but surely Neela had more faith in her right? Even if their relationship was fake and all in Jordan's mind (the jury was still frighteningly out on that one), they were friends!

"Well! We're here!" Venus's charming voice (that's what it was, charming, even though Venus seemed to have once been a Theurgist) brought Jordan out of her panicking thoughts. One of the vines that wrapped around her arms (constantly green without soil or any clear upkeep) crept down to coil around their conjoined hands. "I don't want you bailing on me when the night's just begun!" She cooed as an explanation.

Jordan let out a nervous little laugh, flicking her free hand in a dismissive way, "Please, I promised you one night. I'm not going to go back on that...not now." And finally, she allowed her eyes to take in the Bacchae. It was gorgeous, an old Aquillian style open market (if her memory served her, one of her tutors called it an _agora_ ). Destroyed, almost. There were ruins and half crumbled buildings but as a way of fixing it there was _light_. Neon light forced into solid form to finish the structures and return them to their old perfection with a new shining light. "Wow..."

"I bet you're regretting not letting me take you out earlier, huh?" Her voice was smug even as she dragged Jordan into one of the technically-ruined temples. It seemed to be mostly bar instead of a dance floor (which Jordan was thankful for, she absolutely wasn't ready for a night of close bodies and awkward excuses to pretty women), and Venus dragged her right to the bar. Her vines almost forcing her into one of the stools as she took the neighboring one. "I promise you, Jordz, after tonight you'll be a real Maenad!"

Jordan let out a little disbelieving laugh, a small shake of her head, "No, I won't. Like I said, this is a one night only special. For one night only, Jordan is going to be a party gal. I'm going back to my apartment after this." 

Venus pouted, shoulders slumping down, "Oh, don't be such a bore, Jord! Haha, hey that rhymes! You better not be boring or else bore Jord is going to become your permanent nickname." A cackling laugh as she threw her head back for a joke that really wasn't that funny. Turning for Jordan, Venus flagged down a bartender. There wasn't any money or words exchanged but soon enough there were two drinks in front of each of them. "I bet I'll get you out a few more times, after all we have eternity!"

The reminder of _eternity_ , of the idea of being stuck here forever. Stuck in a party world and never really fitting in, the thought made Jordan tense up. "Hah, that's pretty unlikely. This isn't my...scene, y'know Venus. I really prefer...." Her brow furrowed as she tried to corral her fuzzy memories into order. She couldn't find the ending of her sentence, what did she prefer? Being alone? That's not really accurate, Jordan still knew that she enjoyed being around people. "I dunno, I just prefer...not this I guess."

Venus blew a raspberry, rolling her odd lime-green eyes as she picked up one of the glasses. Inside was a thick red liquid, all sloshing and moving even without Venus's actions, and she barely even blinked as she poured it into the waiting mouths of the Venus Flytraps that had been formed into an almost headband. "Look, you can't waste the rest of your life sitting in that room and moodily staring out the window. Sometimes you gotta let the past lay and enjoy the future!"

Jordan rolled her eyes, opening her mouth to say something way too harsh, before she paused. Venus had a point, if a really annoying one. She couldn't exactly waste away staring out of windows on the outskirts of town hoping that one day she'll see Neela charge in asking for her, and even if Neela was coming Jordan...wouldn't be expected to just waste away, right? Neela wouldn't ask that of her, would she? It was hard to remember the specifics of how she acted, of how she responded to things, but Jordan would like to think she wouldn't be friends (or lovers) with someone who would expect her to obey and wait like a dog.

A particularly mean voice in the back of her head says: _but that's what your mother expected, and you still were the best daughter you could be to here, weren't you?_ The thought struck her, and stuck with her. Jordan hadn't really been exposed to healthy relationships, how could she judge her past self for taking up another unhealthy one? Past self, like that wasn't a week ago. Jordan stared into the bright green liquid in the shot glass, raising her free hand up to slap slightly at her cheeks. _Get real_ , _Crisp_ , she told herself, _you're falling for the tricks of this place._

"You know, it's not alcoholic if that's what you're worried about. I mean, I'm not that much of a bitch." Venus chuckled, letting the vines crawl away from Jordan's hand as she pet at her flytraps, "It's just some weird syrup, like those really cool high tech soda fountains!"

"High tech?" Jordan looked away from the glass to stare Venus in her odd eyes (lime green pupils and dark green iris and yellow sclera it was almost painful to keep eye contact). "You...soda fountains are high tech?" And she wasn't judging that hard, she knew that some worlds weren't as advanced as others, and some were advanced in different ways. But for the life of her, she couldn't remember the last time she heard about soda fountains or soda syrup.

"Yeah! My old hometown had just gotten a soda jerk before I came here! That place was a total snooze fest if you weren't a student though, I'm glad I left!" Venus laughed, tilting her second glass towards Jordan in a mock cheers before downing it, "Yeah, Wiz City was boring as hell, this place is so much better!"

Wiz City, Wizard City, Ravenwood Ravenwood. Jordan had to grab onto her own arm to remind herself that she was in public, squared off nails still able to bite into her arm. She was at Ravenwood, she knew magic she knew how to cast...cast what?

"Hey, Jordz, you're phasing out again," Venus sighed, obviously getting a little annoyed with how absent Jordan had been. Jordan felt like apologizing, felt like doing whatever she wanted for the rest of the night to make up for how stupid she was being! But that was stupid, right? Jordan was being _forced_ to come out for a night on the town, she shouldn't be expected to jump into it, right? "Jordan. C'mon dude, just take a drink and we can go chill in one of the rooms! I hear there's going to be a few poker games and stuff like that later tonight, maybe we can get in on that!" She nudged the glass towards her. 

Jordan was never good at resisting peer pressure, but then again she had never really dealt with negative peer pressure before. So before she knew it, she had picked up the shot glass and downed the oddly thick liquid. It was cold on the way down but warm in her stomach, "You're sure this isn't alcoholic, right?"

Venus rolled her eyes, clapping Jordan on the back, "Positive, now c'mon lets get rolling!" Hopping off of her stool, she twirled on one foot to send Jordan finger guns that made her heart beat (why? why did finger guns make something in her heart warm?). 

She set the glass back on the table, moving after Venus and grabbing her hand. The Bacchae was strange to her, and she didn't want to get lost without her guide. Venus was a really good friend, wasn't she? Keeping up with her even when she had been so very distracted and absent, they didn't even talk on the way there, Jordan had just focused on herself and didn't even try to ask about Venus's plans, "Yeah, yeah that sounds pretty good!" She felt like laughing and she did! Why not? If she was feeling joy she should show it, she should let Venus know how happy she was! 

Venus laughed with her, jostling her shoulder as she wrapped an arm around her, "Fantastic, now c'mon Jordz, we got some games to play."

"I think you mean we got some games to _win_ , I'm not playing if I'm not winning," Jordan grinned as they moved into the backrooms. It was a lot more crowded there, less like the more refined area of the bar and more like some of the clubs that she had seen on television. There weren't any actual chairs or seats, just a lot of pillows and blankets all scattered around and arranged into little circles. All centered around separate tables, some of the tables were just slabs of wood, others were more shaped in order to have games. A roulette wheel set up with small pearls being used as the token, backgammon with chips of ruby and onyx, poker chips of precious gems and melted silver to signify the worth.

"Mhmm, I think we should start with just some cards!" Venus's vines spread out, reserving two seats at one of the normal tables as she dragged Jordan towards it. The seats were just cushions, tasseled and soft as they relaxed on their seats. "Look, my friend's gonna sit out first round so she can figure out the rules, alright?" There were no arguments from the people seated there.

Jordan found herself distracted by the players themselves instead of the game, but she knew she was a quick learner so she didn't bother to focus her thoughts. There were five others players besides herself and Venus, and they all seemed to have taken full advantage of the ability to customize their look (why hadn't she don't the same? why hasn't she had the same sort of free fun with her looks?)

The player to her left was oddly not-there, some vitiligo on their skin but instead of it merely being a lack of pigment, it was a lack of anything. Galaxies and stars and nebula flickering in and out of focus. Their eyes were almost completely black, with small sparkles of white lights that Jasmine figured were just a few more stars set into them. Their hair floated above them, unaffected by gravity and bright white. The other players called them "Muse" and they seemed to have the best poker face of the group (though that could be due to the lack of distinct facial features. A small smile playing on the slight depression where their mouth should be and probably is. Muse never seemed to hesitate on any of their plays, just setting down and picking up cards seemingly at random (or was that how the game was played?). 

The next player was more animalistic. All feathered and sharp edged. His collarbones and shoulders covered in what looked like a cloak of feathers, but they seemed to be attracted to his skin. His eyes were dark and beady, round and far too intelligent for the corvid appearance of the rest of him. There was a rustling noise when it came to his turn to play the cards, and a set of large raven wings unfurled, stretched, and then were tucked back against his back. His mouth was full of sharp teeth, and Jordan was still trying to figure out what animal he got that from as he spoke all soft and slow. Muse called him 'Crow', which Jordan found a bit too on the nose but it was his choice after all, and he seemed to use slight of hand. Jordan thought she saw a few cards slip in and out of his billowing sleeves, but she wasn't sure enough to call him on it (and she had no clue if cheating was apart of this game and after all who really cares! If Jordan calls it out, she could be seen as a bore!). He kept talking as he played with his cards, and Jordan was starting to think that the fangs were a distraction. 

Next player, further to the left, and Jordan had to turn her head to focus more on her. And she was shining and bright and gorgeous. A sun in her own right, all attractive and alluring and Jordan felt like she was caught in orbit the second she saw her. Around her head was an almost halo, spiked and harsh and it was painful to focus on (but Jordan did it anyway). Her hair was fluffy around her head, white and grey and glowing a little, only tamped down barely by a headband (was that where the halo was attached to? or did it just float like it was caught in orbit?). Her eyes were pure white, glowing from within and distracting, which only made her dark brown skin stand out further. Every freckle was another star, every beauty mark was a black hole. Crow called her "Solar" and Jordan found it fitting. She shared smiles across the table at Muse, whose skin glowed brighter as the stars inside of their vitiligo imploded and died. There was something there, and Jordan couldn't find it in herself to be jealous (she should be, shouldn't she? Two beautiful people out of her reach? Why didn't she want them, shouldn't she want them?). Solar seemed to be the weakest player yet, though she didn't seem to mind as more and more cards were added to her hand even though that same thing happening to them made the others at the table get annoyed.

To Solar's left, there seemed to be something right out of Marleybone. It was an automaton, but a lot more advanced than the clockwork golems that had taken to annoying the rich denizens of Marleybone. Almost entirely humanoid (save for some artistic liberties with the head), it was made of sleek chrome and the cards in it's hand floated in front of it's face. The face seemed to be a crystalline screen set into a blank face, allowing the facial features to flicker across it like a broadcast. That did make it seem a bit flat, but considering how whenever it set down more than one card at once, the feed changed to fireworks. The others called it Glitch, but Jordan found it's hardware extremely perfected and found it hard to believe that it could even glitch. 

Venus was talking to the person to Glitch's left, both of them gesturing wildly and broadly to the point of Jordan having to lay back against the pillows in order to avoid getting smacked in the face. The woman seemed to have seen the luxury of the gambling den and ran twenty miles with it. Her skin seemed to have either been replaced, or been entirely covered by, obsidian. A thick coat, thick enough for lines to have been carved into it without penetrating into a deeper level that could be harmful. Poured into the lines was gold and silver and platinum (maybe, Jordan wasn't really that good at telling pale metals apart, but she figured it didn't really matter all that much) in complex designs. Geometric across her exposed shoulders, spirals down her arms, interlocking polygons on her face. Her eyes were entirely gold, seemingly solid and unseeing (but considering the slight scowl set into her face, the woman could see the cards in front of her and she had no poker face), and they shined under the low lights. Venus referred to her as "Gilded", and she seemed to know her very well. Gilded seemed to be more interested in the conversation she was having with Venus as opposed to the game, considering that every so often she would put down a card that made the others yell out and make her take it back and put down a different one. Venus seemed to find it hilarious though, and Jordan found herself laughing as well.

The noise got the others attention, and Muse blinked at her. Head titled as they spoke, "Are you new here? You don't seem to have gotten anything fixed!"

Jordan frowned at that, lips pursing slightly, "Fix? What needs to be fixed about me, I'm just fine like I am." Her hand raised, self consciously touching her hair and face as she looked at them.

"Oh, Muse!" Solar admonished, frowning slightly as she reached across the table to swat at their shoulder. Their hand seemed to _enter_ Muse's shoulder where the vitiligo is, like there really was a galaxy inside of there and Muse was just a mobile entrance to it. "Don't be so rude! They've probably just haven't settled on their current aesthetic! We should take them out on the town, show them their options!" She clapped her hands, sending sparks flying as she cupped her face in her hands and gasped, "Oh, can we pause this stupid game and take them out? You know it's so rare that we get new comers and I've never been able to watch someone's first change!"

Jordan fiddled with the sleeves of her shirt, prim and proper and pressed (why was she so proper? who was she trying to impress?). "I mean, I dunno I kinda like how I look right now! There's nothing..." She trailed off before saying that there was nothing wrong with what she looked like, because was that really correct? If people were thinking she was an outsider, that was an issue. Compared to everyone at the table she looked boring! Maybe a change would be a good thing, maybe trying some new aesthetics would do her some good. "Y'know what, why not! I mean, I can always change my mind, right?" 

"Of course, darling!" Solar's lilting voice assured, reaching out across the table to pat Jordan's hand, "Nothing's really permanent here, and if you find that you don't like your aesthetic, you can always choose a different one! As well as a different name to fit it, I know I've gone through at least fifty names before I landed on Solar!" A trilling little laugh as she fanned her face, feigning embarrassment. "But really, the name is the best part! How about you tell us a name and we can figure out things from there. Don't worry though, like I've said it's all impermanent."

Jordan opened her mouth to say something that would evoke the coldness that was embedded in her veins (a coldness that was slowly warming and melting away), before a small lightning strike of clarity hit her. Neela. Neela her darling, her girlfriend her- "Spitfire. I want my new name to be Spitfire." Something to hold onto, something to keep near and dear and tucked right against her heart no matter how fuzzy her mind got.

"Spitfire!" Glitch spoke, it's voice robotic and seemingly generated, "What a lovely name! We should take you to see the. Fireworks!" And again, it's facial screen turned to a small video of the fireworks. "They are so lovely and. Fitting for such a bright. Person as yourself." It's voice was staggered out, so that every time a new phrase that was a few harder syllables came it would pause and restart.

"Yes! We can go right after getting them some new customization, it'll make their first firework show that much more important won't it?" Solar was almost bouncing in her seat as she flapped her hands, squeezing them slightly as she started rising up, "Come on now, no time to waste! The game can wait-"

"Or we can just start over, I mean the game was really going nowhere," Crow said, and as he stood up the cards that he _was_ stuffing in his sleeves fell out. There were gasps around the table and Glitch's face turned red.

"Cheater! You have forfeited your ability to win!" It's hand pointed at him. "Cheater!"

Crow rolled his eyes (which was a bit odd with the pure black nature of them), and crossed his arms over his chest, "It's just a game, we don't even have any stakes going. This is just a friendly game and sometimes in friendly games I'm allowed to cheat. And besides-" A little flush rose to his cheeks as he bent down to pick up one of his cards, and now that Jordan could see the face of it, she could see that it was citrine placed into a case. "-they're all very shiny." 

Muse just shook their head and also rose up, walking _through_ the table in order to be at Solar's side. No cards were disturbed from their moving, and Jordan was starting to wonder just how much of them was actually there and how much was just galaxy in the shape of a body, "You act much like a magpie for someone named Crow." 

Crow stuck his tongue out at them, scoffing slightly as he gestured (somewhat) dismissively flicking his hand towards Spitfire (not Jordan, she's not Jordan anymore she's Spitfire), "This is about them, not me, don't we have a place to go to?"

Venus laughed a little as she rose up, tugging Spitfire up with her as she wrapped an arm around her shoulder, "Damn right we do! I know just the place!" The group seemed to form a little order, mostly walking in a group where Spitfire was in the center. Venus to her right, Glitch to their left, Solar and Muse behind her and Gilded and Crow in front of her. They were all chattering with each other, with Spitfire mostly left out of the conversation but she didn't mind. 

Instead, she let herself focus on the Bacchae. Her walk here had been with her stuck in her own silly head, but now she can properly appreciate the beauty of the place. The neon was beautiful, especially as it bounced against the chrome of Glitch's body, or off of Gilded's onyx skin. She wanted that, she wanted to be beautiful like them, to be handsome like them as well. "I want fireworks." She said outloud.

Venus blinked, pausing her conversation with Gilded to focus on Jordan. Looking her up and down silently for a bit as she thought on it, before a wide smile spread her lips, "Yes! You could have those eternal firecracker earrings! I saw them the last time I got these beauties touched up-" her hand reached up to tease at the lining of the flytrap on top of her head, "-and they would work so good with you!"

Jordan felt herself _warm_ , all ice melting inside of her (why was she full of ice before, what was the point?) as she got more and more excited at the idea, "Oh, that sounds fantastic! I want a lot of fire, I don't know why but I've been feeling cold!" A laugh, that was shared by the group and that made her feel _warm_. The community she felt with these people that she just met made her wonderfully warm, in a strangely familiar way. She couldn't place her finger on the reason why she was reminded of something with the warmth, but she didn't pay attention to it. The memory was fleeting and Spitfire was just left lovingly smoldering.

"Embers! We can get you some ember styled dresses, or suits, we don't judge!" Solar babbled out as she reached to play with Jordan's hair, humming slightly, "If you want to keep it short, we could have it replaced with ashes and embers, that way you could never be cold again! You'd always be so wonderfully warm and we could make it so that the embers respond to your emotions, that way if you get really emotional you could just have a full fire going on your head!"

"Oh, that could be fun for bonfires! We could just have a mobile little bonfire in our lovely little Spitfire, and we could roast marshmallows!" Venus giggled, reaching out with a hand to stroke Spitfire's cheek, "Oh...I knew you'd become a Maenad!"

"What's a Maenad?" The question came easy, Spitfire just wanted to know everything about this place. To have all of her questions answered and to make sure that she would never be in the dark again.

"Oh, it's just the term for people who get fully customized and go out partying or on the town every night! Don't worry, Sparkling, we're all very responsible and we won't let yourself get hurt at all!" Solar crooned out, shifting up to be on Spitfire's other side and clutching her arm, "We could find a place to construct a house, a perfect little mansion I know we've all been talking about it, but now we have another member! Our perfect seventh!"

Spitfire beamed at her, "Did you know that seven in some cultures is really lucky and in others it's extremely bad luck? I just find it so interesting the ideas that everyone has about what should be good and what should be bad! But I think in this case it's definitely a good thing because I cannot see any reason that me being here could be bad!"

Glitch's facial read turned into a bright green light, "Finally! Another fact minded. Individual! I am sure you have so many things that you know about! I would love to update my databanks with what you know!"

Gilded smiled, walking backwards in order to stay in the conversation, "I think we should fix Spitfire's eyes. Make them just as bright as she is! Maybe they could have fireworks going on in them? Oooh, or their pupils could be firework shaped!"

"I like the idea of them being firework shaped! But how about just a star, and I make the pupils look like fireworks. On a cycle of bursting into color and fading!" Spitfire was bouncing a little extra as she walked, noticing that Crow had started to slowly herd them in the direction of another building. It seemed to be a store, so she figured this was were she would finally be perfected and wonderful and unique. 

"Fantastic idea, you have so many good ideas locked up in that big head of yours." Venus teased as she walked into the door that Crow was so nicely holding open for them. She paused and gently tapped at his nose, "You can wait out here, Spitfire's going to be changing and you get to wait!"

"You mean I get to pay, don't you?" Crow's voice was a resigned sort of annoyed.

"You cheated, you pay!" Glitch's voice was bright and cheery as it walked past, moving towards the more mechanical section, "I will shop for myself, I cannot wait to see what Spitfire looks like and I am so proud of you!"

The praise made Spitfire warm warm warm and she never wanted it to stop, "Yeah, totally! We should definitely go back to that game afterwards though, even if Crow did cheat I'd love to find out how to play with all of you!" She let herself get herded towards the changing rooms by Venus and Solar, who were chattering to themselves about new dresses and suits they might also buy as long as Crow was footing the bill.

It was hard, trying to land on a style, but it was so very easily to slip into the role of Spitfire. Entering the changing room with the list of ideas, Spitfire took a seat on the stool and stared at her imperfect self. Things would need to change, and fast. She started from the top down, letting the changes roll over her like warm water from a stream.

Her hair changed to smoldering embers that could alight at any second and carried no smoke. The idea of being a mobile bonfire wasn't exactly appealing, but the idea of having that sort of fun with her new friends far outweighed the idea of being used as a heat source. Her eyes turned to embers as well, sparking and glowing and shifting around, her pupils were oddly shaped as well. Not stars as she had joked about, instead they were triangular and a bright white. 

Her outfit, a smart suit jacket over a plain shirt with a skirt, matched her new theme. Go big or go home after all, and Spitfire was long past the days of moping by the window for no reason. As she admired herself, she could barely believe how stupid she had been! Lazing around and refusing all of Venus's offers of friendship and entertainment, and for what? She couldn't remember what she had been waiting for, so it couldn't have been that important! The suit jacket was a matte black, or at least it seemed like that at first, the longer you stared, the more small pops of orange and red came out, making the jacket seem like it was constantly smoldering. The shirt was nothing special, just white and constantly warm against her chest in order to make sure that there was a small area of respite. 

The skirt was what she really loved though. It had been Gilded and Solar's idea, of having a fire for a skirt. At the top, it was a pale pink and white to mimic the sky and it slowly shifted into burning oranges and reds that seemed to spark when she twirled around. Occasionally, small pops of yellow would seem to flow off of it, and if Spitfire willed it, they really would pop off. Smoldering and bright and as fiery as the person who was wearing it.

Grinning at her perfected self, she smiled and swirled her way out of the changing room to present herself to her friends, "Well, how do I look?"

The reaction was instant and gratifying as Solar rushed up to her and swept her up into a hug, "Oh, Sparkling, you look so wonderful! It fits you so well, and the fire looks so good on you, you really are growing into yourself!" She set Spitfire down so that the others could coo over her.

And coo over her they did. Looking over her and gently touching and toying with the accessories and the embers in her hair. The rest of the night passed in a blur, Spitfire just letting herself get dragged around the town. Going to pretty bars and clubs and partying and dancing the night away until the sun was rising and Spitfire had to support Venus on their way home. 

Venus giggled at nothing, leaning against Spitfire and rested her head on her shoulder, "Ohhh, Spitfire, we really made a Maenad outta you." The vines on her body crawled across Spitfire's body in a sort of weird hug, squeezing her and almost constricting her, "I'm so glad you came out with me."

Spitfire grunted, stumbling slightly thanks to the weight unbalancing her, "Yeah yeah, you're a sap and you are drunk." The group had kept their promise, making sure that she never even touched anything alcoholic, but that didn't mean that they themselves didn't have some fun. Glitch was the only one who didn't drink, mostly because of it's robotic face, so Spitfire and it tended to talk together while the others were getting drinks. 

"I'm not drunk," Venus protested, slurring her words slightly as she stumbled over her own feet. Spitfire's skirt sparked as she had to move to catch her so she didn't eat pavement. "See...just caught myself." She preened slightly, the mouths of the Flytraps fluttering on her head.

"Shut up," Spitfire grunted, looking up to see their apartment building, "C'mon we're almost there, and I'll let you sleep on my couch but if you throw up anywhere on the carpet or the couches, I will have legal right to kick your plant ass." 

They eventually got in, not that Venus was helping with it. She seemed to have a one track mind of falling down stairs and Spitfire was glad for her muscles (where did she get them? why can't she remember?) so she didn't end up having to walk down all of the stairs again to drag Venus back up. But the night passed, she fell into a wonderful rest, and was only awoken hours later by Venus's groaning. 

The days passed in a blur, parties and games and fun. Oh it was so fun and Spitfire let herself go, fireworks bursting soundlessly in her ears and skirt a bonfire around her. She was warm and loved and attended to, by the friend group and the bartenders and the strangers. And of course, she had so much information to tell! So she did so!

Anytime she heard anything about people questioning, and she knew the answer, she'd just go right up to them and tell them what they were wrong/uninformed about! Maybe it didn't make her many friends, but she quickly got hired as a makeup technician at one of the beauty parlors. Jobs were weird so Spitfire only had to work when she felt like it, which was pretty often! Sometimes the group would go out drinking, and Spitfire wouldn't feel like caring for a group of drunk people, so instead she'd talk people's ear off about what shades were right!

Two weeks in to being a proper Maenad, and Spitfire was in the club dancing. The club was packed, people smoking and drinking and partying and the smell of the smoke in the air made Spitfire's head spin even as Gilded spun her while they were dancing. "Oh, oh oh Gilded you have to let me do your makeup sometime! I know just the right shades that would make your eyes really pop and I bet that you'd look fantastic with some white eyeshadow considering your dark skin and the jewels inset on your face." Even dancing, she couldn't stop herself from babbling out.

"Alright, Spitfire, that sounds nice," Gilded humored, taking Spitfire's hands in theirs as she tugged her closer and pushed her away, "But tomorrow, we're partying tonight."

"Then you better not drink too much, you're so annoying and sleepy when you're hungover and I don't want to have to deal with hungover Gilded who can't keep her eyes open and I can't properly put on the makeup because you keep rubbing at your face and ruining my hard work!"

There was a little noise, a door opening and not closing and Spitfire whirled to see it. Of course there was nothing to be seen, the crowd of people blocked her line of sight and she just let herself get pulled back into dancing with Gilded. "You heard that too, right?" She asked, wanting to make sure that she wasn't developing tinnitus from all the partying (that would suck, she'd never be able to properly party again and she'd just be a bore again!)

"Yeah, but it's not that odd! Maybe people were just doing a bar crawl and finally decided to come down to dance, it's happened before!" Solar interjected, "I mean, I know we've done that, without you of course. Not that we like excluding you we just know that you don't like caring for a bunch of drunk people and Glitch is good enough at making sure none of us walk into the street, but yeah! We've come hear almost at 6 am before!" 

"Oh! Well that's good, I was worried that something was happening," Spitfire laughed slightly as she danced between Solar, Muse, and Gilded. "Did you know that-"

The fun fact that she was about to give out (something very important, at least to her, about the chances of them getting actually hurt) was interrupted by the sound of a new voice, "JORDAN?"

Spitfire didn't respond, because she wasn't Jordan! She was Spitfire and she had been forever (at least it felt like forever, and it's all that mattered because it was what she was going by right now!), and she figured that the newcomer had just seen an old friend. That conclusion was ruined as she felt a _warm_ (familiar warm, familiar like the heat that she had chased after this entire time and never really reached) hand grab her arm and turn her around.

The person who had spoken was an attractive girl around Jordan's age, dark skin and dark eyes and white hair (with dark roots, Spitfire should probably give her recommendations about dying her hair and also probably take her to the salon it would work so much better!). There was ash on her fingertips and when Spitfire looked down at her sleeves, there were ashy remnants of her fingerprints there, "Jordan, oh god we finally found you!"

"You know, you're being kind of rude with the whole grabbing my sleeve with your ash covered fingers, but don't worry I have a really good way to get ash and soot out of clothing so it's no real issue but if you could release me so I could shake it off that'd be great. Pressing it in would just make it a lot harder for me to get it out, and I really like this jacket and I don't want to have to go a while without it." The words poured out of Spitfire's lips, even as she focused on the _two_ newcomers. There was a taller man behind her, smiling and jauntily almost-flirting with a half-interested Crow.

He was attractive, in the strangest way, all garish colors and wide smiles and if it wasn't for the aura of _realness_ around him, Spitfire would assume that he was just another Maenad. But no, he was a newcomer already best suited to The Bacchae. And he turned to face her, and she noticed that there was a good deal of makeup on his face (disappointing, she figured that he might be naturally that flawless and the products he was using seemed to be extremely cheap and Spitfire had a lot of better replacements if he let her), "Oh, I like this new Jordan!"

"Sun!" She admonished, dropping Jordan's sleeve and brushing her hands against each other. The name rung a bell, somewhere deep within Spitfire but whenever she tried to think about where that bell came from, all that came up was Solar. Right, this 'Sun' reminded her of Solar, that was the extent of the familiarity. "We have to get her out of here!"

"Hey, sorry, I have no clue who you are or who this Jordan you're looking for is, but she's not me! I'm really sorry about that because you really look like lovely people, except for your makeup Sun it's extremely cheap and drying. I have a lot of better replacements and I'm sure that whatever you're using right now is just barely above straight up mud in terms of doing anything for your skin. You really should be careful what you're putting on your face, you'll end up looking like a piece of driftwood before you're thirty at this rate!"

Sun paused at that, face going through several different expressions before landing on something like manic joy, "Oh, I _love_ this new Jordan! C'mon, flurry, tell me more about your fantastic little makeup tricks!"

Spitfire frowned, head tilting, "My name isn't Jordan! I told you guys that like three times at this point!"

"Oh, I'm- sorry for being rude. What's your name? My name's Neela," Neela (the name was familiar and Spitfire mouthed it to herself after she said it) smiled, but there was something nervous about it. Anxious and potential energy all coiled up inside of her like if she didn't find out what was going on she would just explode.

"Spitfire!" She beamed, so very happy about her chosen name as she flicked her earrings to make the fireworks reset in their bursting cycle. Out of the corner of her eye she could see the sparks but her attention was mainly captured by the interesting expressions on Neela and Sun's face, "But, Sun, if you want to not ruin your skin for the rest of your life, I have just the place!" Spitfire glanced around her, noticing that her friends had gone for drinks, "I just have to make sure my friends know where I'm going, one time I wandered off and almost fell into the river so they always like to keep tables on me."

Soon enough, Crow came back, the flutter of his wings proceeding him, "Hey, Sparkling, these guys aren't annoying you right?"

"No, not at all! In fact I'm about to make sure that Mr. Dry Ass Foundation over there doesn't end up looking sixty in his thirties!" Spitfire laughed as she reached to grab Crow's hand and give it a little squeeze, "I'll be at Dite's Beauty Table, okay? Make sure the others know that, we don't need another manhunt coming for me."

Crow glanced at Neela and Sun, narrowing his eyes just barely before nodding his head slowly, "If you're sure, then go ahead. But you have my comm, so you can contact me if they start being...annoyances?" He raised his upper lip in a partial sneer, showing off the sharp teeth he had replacing his normal ones.

"Oh stop being so paranoid, will you? I'm quite literally combustable, I doubt I'd have any trouble handling myself," Though, a cursory glance at Neela's muscles (becoming less and less cursory the longer she stared) gave her some doubts about how well she'd be able to handle herself against her. Sun though? Spitfire knew she could take Sun any day of the week.

"So...can we go?" Neela's voice was high and tight, hands squeezing at the sides of her long overcoat as her foot tapped against the LED square making up the floor. "Sorry, but if Sun's...makeup job is really that bad then we should probably go right away, right?"

"Oh, yeah no of course! Okay, bye Crow! Tell the others where I went!" Spitfire gave a last smile and wave as she took Neela and Sun by the hand and began to half drag them out of the club. The cool night air hit her face as a few embers were blown from her hair, "Dite's Beauty Table is just a little while away, but if you have anything that could take your current wreckage off of your face I really suggest doing that. Sometimes having no makeup on your face does a world of good compared to having bad makeup on your face. And Sun I'm not trying to be mean, I swear I'm not, but you are wearing some of the cheapest and worst makeup ever. If you got that as a gift I really suggest never talking to the person who gave you it again because they absolutely don't have your best interests in mind."

Sun laughed, a wild loud sound that was perfect for Spiraltown, "Oh, I like this version of you, Miss Spitfire. Tell me more about all of the mistakes I've made with my skin and tell me how to fix them!"

Neela cleared her throat, her hand warm against Spitfire's palm (familiar warm familiar familiar familiar was this the warmth that she had been chasing after?), "Sun, remember, we have something to do. We have a mission to complete and Jor- I mean, Spitfire, we really need your help with it."

Spitfire didn't stop her path, not dropping either of their hands as she led them to the brightly lit Beauty Table, "You need my help? Are you sure you don't need that _Jordan_ girl you were looking for's help?"

"Yes! We need your help, we're one hundred percent we need you!" Sun laughed slightly, looking around at the neon lights and old world relics that Spiraltown was made out of, "So, how do you want to be a hero?"

Spitfire laughed, shaking her head slightly as she almost shoved Sun into the chair, "A hero? Please! I'm more than content to just work by day and party all night, I don't need heroics." She hummed as she grabbed makeup remover and began to wipe off Sun's face.

"But, I need you!" Neela's face flushed and she glanced away, "I mean, we need your help. We need a guide around this place, we're looking for...Michael?"

"Oh, do you mean The Storyteller? He's rather easy to find, you definitely don't need a guide to find him. Just go to city center and he's in the main lounge there. Hmm," She looked across her many vials of foundation, and then at Sun's clean face, and then back, "I'm trying to figure out your exact shade so just give me a minute, but I guess that you'll need someone to actually get you in. I mean, the Storyteller doesn't just let anyone in his private lounge after all, but if I put myself as someone who's willing to do his makeup then I could get you in." A pause as she grabbed what she felt was the closest to Sun's shade (there was something odd about his skin, something strange and not-human and Spitfire would need a few more tests to figure out how exactly to best compliment it, but it definitely seemed like Sun would need some hydrating makeup). "I guess you did need me!"

"Yeah," Neela's voice was quickly regaining what seemed to be her natural energy, "Yeah! Like we said we really need a guide and I guess we really struck gold with you, huh Spitfire?"

"Hm, I mean you'd probably strike gold a lot easier with Gilded!" She laughed, amusing herself as she shifted her stool closer to start to apply the makeup, "Sorry, I forgot that you guys are new and don't know her! Don't worry, she's a really great gal and she'll probably come with us on the trip to The Storyteller-"

"No! I mean- no. This is sort of a secret mission, Spitfire, we can't really have a lot of people knowing about this. It's...some old drama between Sun and him," There was an odd tone in her voice, and Spitfire just barely narrowed her eyes at her, "They used to date!"

"Spark, I thought I told you to never speak of that again!" Sun scowled, before Spitfire swatted at his cheek to get his face to relax so she could finish applying the makeup.

"Oh don't get too mad at her, I do love a good dramatic romance! I'll help you, just so long as on the way there you tell me all the juicy details of your old drama. After all, I don't do things for free! Except this makeup, this is just my good deed for the day especially considering the garbage that you had on your face before. Look up-" she commanded as she brought out a sparkling black kohl and began to heavily line Sun's eye.

"Can we keep her like this, Kumar?" Sun's voice was breathy and excited as he tried not to flinch at the kohl being applied.

Spitfire could've thought on how odd that was, but instead she was focusing on the slight edges underneath Sun's ears. Little ridges like vestigial gills. Interesting, maybe she really should've put moisturizer on first.


End file.
